.54 English Sporting Rifle

[Herb]

I am just finishing a .54 Rice-barreled English Sporting Rifle, copied from the one Neill Fields made for the Fort Bridger Rendezvous raffle about two years ago.  It has a 32" swamped barrel and a Chambers English Fowler lock.  The stock we sawed from a plank of walnut grown in Vernal.  It weighs about 7 1/2 pounds with a 13 1/4" LOP and 1/4" castoff.  It comes to my eye just right.  My .58 flint Hawken is too long and heavy for me to shoot offhand in our local matches and I got tired of the big boys kicking sand in my face for shooting a caplock.

The finish was Laurel Mountain Forge Nut Brown stain, one coat of Track's Original Oil Finish and 10 coats of Formbys gloss Tung Oil.  I'll leave the barrel and lock in the white and coat them with hot beeswax.

[wattlebuster]

It looks great Herb. Good looking martins too

[Curtis]

Nice looking rifle Herb,  you should be able to put a stop to that sand kicking for sure!  Give us a range report when you can.

Curtis

[Feltwad]

Herb

A nice build and well done .But may I say and [I am not nit picking]  if you had stuck to the traditional style of a English sporting rifle would have increased the build considerably..
Feltwad

[Herb]

I built exactly what I wanted for me.

[dogcreek]

That's a great-looking English Sporting rifle. Congratulations on a job well done!

[JoeG]

Good looking gun
I look forward to handling it at the next shoot

[Herb]

Nice to hear from you, Joe.  Maybe Jim will have a New Year's day shoot, he was undecided at Neill's Christmas party last night.  But I'll bring the rifle and my guitar to the party at Jim's.

[TradT]

Wow, that is a real beauty! Great job on the walnut stock.

[KLMoors]

That should be a real nice handling gun Herb. The English style gun I built has a 31" D-weight barrel and it carries and points real well.

Good luck on the firing line with it!

[Don Getz]

Herb..........nice, clean job.   I personally would have made the pitch of the butt closer to 90 degrees, you would be amazed
what this does for a gun........Don

[Long Ears]

Don, I need to ask a question without stealing the thread. When you say closer to 90 degrees on the pitch, is the 90 degrees to the bore or comb line? Thanks, Bob

[Herb]

Here's the nose end.  On dimensions- Neill got some parts from Chambers and probably based his rifle on their English Gentleman's Sporting Rifle.  From their web site, the barrel is 31" long, length of pull is 13 1/2", heel drop is 2 3/4", overall length is 46 1/4" and I measured the pitch down at top of muzzle as 5 3/4".  Neill's rifle is 31", LOP is 13 1/2", drop 3 1/2", length 46 5/8" and pitch is 5 1/2".  I had a 32" barrel, my LOP is 12 7/8", drop 2 3/4", length 47" and pitch is 3 3/8".  I had to fit the stock pattern on a plank with cracks and knot holes, so my dimensions got adjusted.  But I wouldn't change the fit if I could.

Like that curly maple in my Morris guitar?  The one on the right is a Teton Guitar, made by Chesbro Music in Idaho Falls, ID.  I was in IF in early September on the way to Helena and visited the Museum of Idaho, with a huge guitar exhibit, a national traveling display.  Bought six tickets for a buck each on a chance at two guitars and I won this one, a Teton STS205CENT.  So if any of you bought tickets on this one, here is where it went.  I really like it.  I play and sing at the Uintah Care Center and Beehive Homes (assisted living) each week.

[Don Getz]

Bob........that would be 90 degrees from the comb line.   It might be difficult to do this when fitting a brass or iron buttplate
where the angle is pre determined.........Don